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Based on the novel by Victor Hugo, 'Les Miserables' travels with prisoner-on-parole, 24601, Jean Valjean, as he runs from the ruthless Inspector Javert on a journey beyond the barricades, at the center of the June Rebellion. Meanwhile, the life of a working class girl with a child is at turning point as she turns to prostitution to pay money to the evil innkeeper and his wife who look after her child, Cosette. Valjean promises to take care of the child, eventually leads to a love triangle between Cosette, Marius who is a student of the rebellion, and Eponine, a girl of the streets. The people sing of their anger and Enjolras leads the students to fight upon the barricades.

Storyline

In 1815 France, convict Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) is released on parole by prison guard Javert (Russell Crowe) after serving a 19-year sentence for stealing a loaf of bread as well as repeated escape attempts. After several months of drifting around France, Valjean is offered food and shelter by the Bishop of Digne (Colm Wilkinson), but steals his silver during the night. He is caught by the authorities, but the Bishop lies by saying that the silver was given as a gift, and secures Valjean's release. Touched by the Bishop's love, grace and generosity, Valjean breaks his parole and vows to start an honest life under a new identity. Javert swears he will bring the escaped convict to justice.

Eight years later in 1823, Valjean has become a wealthy factory owner and mayor of the small town of Montreuil-sur-Mer. A young woman named Fantine (Anne Hathaway), one of his workers, is discovered to be sending money to her illegitimate daughter, Cosette (Isabelle Allen), who lives with the unscrupulous Thénardiers (Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter) and their daughter Éponine (Natalya Angel Wallace), and is dismissed by the foreman (Michael Jibson). Left with no alternative, Fantine turns to prostitution. During an argument with an abusive customer, Javert, now a police inspector, arrests Fantine, but Valjean intercedes and takes her to a hospital where she is diagnosed with a terminal case of tuberclosis.

Later, Valjean learns that a man believed to be him has been arrested. Unable to condemn an innocent man, Valjean reveals his identity to the court before departing for the hospital. There he promises to a dying Fantine that he will look after her daughter. After Fantine dies, Javert arrives at the hospital and attempts to arrest Valjean. But Valjean escapes and finds Cosette at the Thénardiers brothel/halfway house. Valjean bribes the couple to allow him to take Cosette away. After Valjean confides in Cosette about her mother passing away, he promises to be like a father to her. Valjean makes contact with the Bishop of Digne who agrees to give him and Cosette new idenities to hide from the authorities.

Nine years later in June of 1833, Jean Maximilien Lamarque, the only government official sympathetic toward the poor, is nearing death. Students Marius Pontmercy (Eddie Redmayne) and Enjolras (Aaron Tveit), together with street urchin Gavroche (Daniel Huttlestone), discuss fomenting a revolution to overthrow the government. Later Marius catches a glimpse of Cosette (Amanda Seyfried), now a young woman, and instantly falls in love with her. Meanwhile, despite Cosette's questioning, Valjean refuses to tell her about his past or anything about her late mother, Fantine.

At a café, Enjolras organises a group of idealistic students as Lamarque's death is announced. Meanwhile, Éponine (Samantha Barks), now Marius's friend, leads him to Cosette, where the two profess their love for one another. Lamenting that her secret love for Marius will never be reciprocated, Éponine fatalistically decides to join the revolution. Later, an attempted robbery of Valjean's house makes him mistakenly believe that Javert has discovered him, and he flees with Cosette. As they leave, Enjolras rallies the Parisians to revolt, and Cosette sends a farewell letter to Marius.

The next day, the students interrupt Lamarque's funeral procession and begin their assault. Javert poses as a rebel in order to spy on them, but is quickly exposed by Gavroche and captured. During the ensuing gunfight, Éponine saves Marius at the cost of her own life, professing her love to him before she dies, which leaves Marius devastated at the loss of his best friend. Valjean, intercepting a letter from Marius to Cosette, goes to the barricade to protect Marius. After saving Enjolras from snipers, he is allowed to execute Javert. However, when the two are alone, Valjean chooses to free Javert instead and fires his gun to fake the execution. Initially disbelieving, Javert wonders at Valjean's generosity.

With the majority of the Parisians not joining the revolution as the students expected, they resolve to fight to the death. Everyone is killed by government troops in the final assault on the street barricades, but Marius is saved when Valjean drags his unconscious body into the sewers. Thénardier, scavenging the dead bodies, steals Marius's ring. Valjean recovers and escapes the sewers carrying Marius, but is confronted at the exit by Javert. Javert threatens to shoot Valjean if he refuses to surrender, but Valjean ignores him. Unable to reconcile the conflict between his civil and moral duties, two things which he always considered the same, Javert commits suicide by jumping off a bridge into the Seine river.

Later, Marius mourns for his friends but Cosette comforts him. Revealing his past to Marius, Valjean tells him he must leave because his presence endangers Cosette, and makes Marius promise never to tell her. A few months later, Marius and Cosette marry; the Thénardiers crash the reception and testify that they saw Valjean carrying a murdered corpse through the sewers. Thénardier unwittingly shows Marius the ring that he stole from him as "proof." Recognising the ring, Marius realises that it was Valjean who saved his life. Marius and Cosette rush to Valjean after being told his location by Thénardier.

As Valjean sits dying in a local convent from his long-term heart condition, he perceives the spirit of Fantine appearing to take him to Heaven. Cosette and Marius rush in to bid farewell. Valjean hands Cosette his confession of his past life, and the spirits of Fantine and the Bishop guide him to paradise, where he joins the spirits of Enjolras, Éponine, Gavroche, and the other rebels at the Barricade on the rue Soufflot.

Continuity When Gavroche is shot and killed at the barricade, his eyes are open. When he is carried away from the barricades, his eyes are already shut. But when he is laid in a row with the other dead students for Javert's inspection, his eyes are open again.

Continuity In "At the End of the Day" when all the women quickly form two rows the positioning of Fantine and the factory women standing on either side of her changes about three times.

Continuity When we first see Enjolras speaking before the crowd during "Look Down", he and Marius are holding pamphlets in their hands. When Enjolras sings his line "Where is the king who runs this show?", he raises his hand above his head and the camera does a quick cut for a close up -- revealing that the pamphlet has vanished from his hands.

Continuity When Valjean gets down on one knee to tell Cosette of her mother's fate, he appears to reach up and take his hat off. When the camera goes from Cosette back to Jean, his hat is still sitting on top of his head.

Continuity During the final scene, the sky changes between shots from being cloudy to having few or no clouds.

Continuity When Gavroche first comes up from inside the elephant, he is wearing only a blue jacket. In the next shot, He is wearing a brown blanket. In the shot after that, it has disappeared again.

Continuity When Javert arrives back at the barricade, the gun disappears and reappears in his hand.

Continuity During "The Robbery", Thernardier speaks to Javert and grows nearer and nearer to his face. The shot changes, however, and shows Javert at a different angle, moving closer to Thernardier.

Continuity During the opening scene at the docks, the sun keeps changing between shots.

Revealing Mistakes Very near the end of the song "Stars," a shot from behind Javert shows he is facing Notre Dame and the moon is in the sky to his right. Although the moon is to his right and illuminates buildings in the background from that perspective, the light reflected off of Javert's forehead is coming from his left.

Trivia:

Hugh Jackman personally lobbied for Anne Hathaway to get the role of Fantine after the two performed together at the Academy Awards.

Due to the physical demands of daily singing, none of the cast was allowed alcohol. Russell Crowe and Amanda Seyfried both admitted it was a challenge to not be able to drink, and Crowe bought Seyfried a bottle of whiskey as a present after filming wrapped.

Anne Hathaway refuses to discuss how she lost 25 pounds to play the dying Fantine, as she admits her methods were life threatening, and doesn't want to glamorize or promote her methods to young women. However, she has confirmed eating oatmeal paste as one of the reasons of her weight loss.

The film was going to be 4 hours long, with a 15-minute battle. But, it was shortened to 2 and a half hours. 15 minutes of the final film were cut out.

Amanda Seyfried said in an interview that it took over four months of auditioning to get the part of Cosette. She was entirely unaware of the other young women auditioning/ being considered for the role, but she was constantly told that she was "not right" for this musical/film. During the audition process, Seyfried was also singing/reading for the role of Fantine, and forced herself to get into vocal and physical shape for strong consideration for either one of the roles. When Anne Hathaway signed on as Fantine, Seyfried was given the role of Cosette.

Hayden Panettiere, Scarlett Johansson, Lea Michele, Emily Browning, Lucy Hale and Evan Rachel Wood auditioned for the role of Eponine, before it was rumored that Taylor Swift had been offered the role. In the end, Samantha Barks was cast.

Coincidentally, Anne Hathaway sang with Hugh Jackman at the Academy Awards (twice). The second time, Hathaway was hosting and sang 'On My Own' to Jackman because Jackman refused to sing with her. Later, Jackman was cast in this movie and he suggested Hathaway as Fantine. She was later cast.

Hugh Jackman went 36 hours without water, causing him to lose water weight around his eyes and cheeks, giving him the gaunt appearance of a prisoner.

Fantine's assault by a rejected customer is based on an actual incident from Victor Hugo's life that resulted in Fantine's creation: he was on his way to his editor's office when he encountered a young man harassing a prostitute. When she rejected his advances, he shoved a handful of snow down her dress and shoved her to the ground. When she defended herself with her fists, he immediately called the police to arrest his "assailant". Hugo was a minor celebrity at the time and spoke up on the woman's behalf when the police arrived and was able to have her set free. Hugo said he was horrified by the unfairness of the woman's situation and began to imagine that she might have children depending on her, and thus Fantine appeared in his mind.

Recording the actors' singing live as they're acting may not be a first for this film, but the scope, and especially the manner in which it's being done, is: The actors wore ear pieces which fed the sound of a live piano being played off-stage, to keep their singing in key. The main novelty here is, there's no count-in or predetermined tempo and the piano is following the pacing of the actor, not the other way around - a first for a filmed musical. Orchestral music was added post-production.

Typically, the soundtrack for a movie musical is recorded several months in advance and the actors mime to playback during filming. However, on this film, every single song was recorded live on set to capture the spontaneity of the performances. Everyone involved, from Hugh Jackman to Russell Crowe to producer Cameron Mackintosh, have praised this approach as it allowed them to concentrate on their acting as opposed to lip-syncing properly. They have also praised director Tom Hooper for attempting this on such a scale; something no director has ever done before.

Amanda Seyfried also played young Cosette before, when she was 7 years old in a concert.

Anne Hathaway actually cut her hair very short for this movie, in a scene where her character sells her hair.

While it seems odd, the "coffin" to which Fantine takes her first "john" is really the type of bed used by poorer people at that time. The raised sides helped to keep the sleeper warm. People who were better off either had bed curtains on all sides or slept in a small partition with curtains that could be closed to hold in the heat.

Eddie Redmayne's audition was on his iPhone. He recorded himself singing in a trailer during a movie break in North Carolina.

Hugh Jackman lost considerable weight and grew a real scraggly beard for scenes of Valjean as a prisoner, though mercifully they were shot first in production and he could shave and return to his usual weight for scenes playing Valjean as a wealthy man.

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